Volunteer firefighters a special, yet dying breed

She has trained, fought fires and helped rescue victims at accident scenes. It can take her away from home and her family at all hours of the day and night, but it’s something she can’t give up.

Rob Baxter

She has trained, fought fires and helped rescue victims at accident scenes. It can take her away from home and her family at all hours of the day and night, but it’s something she can’t give up.

For Stephanie Lynch, being a volunteer firefighter is a way of life.

She has trained, fought fires and helped rescue victims at accident scenes. It can take her away from home and her family at all hours of the day and night, but it’s something she can’t give up.

“I fell in love with it 10 years ago, and I’ve continued with it ever since,” said the Rockton volunteer firefighter who used to volunteer in South Beloit.

Volunteer firefighters make up 72 percent of the nation’s shrinking firefighting force, said Kimberly Ettinger of the National Volunteer Fire Council. Yet volunteer firefighters are increasingly hard to find as departments across the Rock River Valley -- and the country -- struggle to find recruits.

One of the reasons is the increasingly demanding requirements to become one. Recruits must spend hundreds of hours in the classroom and in field-training exercises to achieve the state’s recommended firefighter qualification, something that was once reserved for full-time, paid firefighters. Many are cross-trained in medical, fire, rescue and special skills, such as diving.

Volunteer numbers falling

During the past two decades, the number of volunteer firefighters has dropped by 8 percent. That’s a big deal, Ettinger said, when you consider that the U.S. has a little more than 1 million firefighters in America and, of those, 823,650 are volunteers.

“There’s been a decline in retention because of the long hours and the ongoing
How to volunteer

What you need to know:

The job: Volunteer firefighters perform the same functions as paid firefighters, such as battling and putting out residential, commercial and industrial fires, rescuing people and treating injuries.
Requirements: You must be 18, capable of passing several types of tests and be physically fit. Across the Rock River Valley, departments have different standards for their volunteer firefighters. Some require 70 hours of training, others 200 hours or more.
Training: Recruits typically are trained on duty for weeks before being assigned during actual emergencies. Training is ongoing.
Education: Degrees in fire science can be obtained at junior and community colleges, universities and through apprenticeship programs at local firehouses. Apprenticeship programs can last up to four years and combine hands-on training with classroom instruction.
Career: The occupation is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2014, according to bls.gov, the U.S. Department of Labor and Statistics’ Web site. In May 2004, the latest statistics available, the median hourly pay for firefighters was $18.43, with a range of less than $9.71 to more than $29.21.

requirements and training needed,” she said. “Recruiting has become a challenge for departments nationwide. There’s a number of factors, (including) an increased time commitment and increased training standards since 9/11.”

Rockton Fire Chief Ron Weavel said his department, which has no full-time paid posts, is still managing to get the job done. But he sees problems down the road as the community grows and more fire protection is needed to cover a larger area of homes and businesses.

Kevin Wiwczaroski, secretary/treasurer for the Illinois Firefighters Association, said the story is the same in most Illinois communities where volunteer fire departments are the norm.

“It used to be that 90 percent of your volunteers lived in town or nearby,” said Wiwczaroski, a 28-year volunteer firefighter and member of the Glen Carbon Fire Protection District in southwestern Illinois. “It’s not community-based anymore. There’s been a big push the past several years for mutual-aid agreements to supplement local manpower.”

Mutual-aid agreements allow departments in communities that border each other or are close by to respond to emergencies in each other’s jurisdictions.

A local success

Harlem-Roscoe Chief Oscar Presley has had little or no trouble keeping his growing department staffed. At last count, he has about 100 people in his three departments in Roscoe, South Beloit and Machesney Park.

“I’ve never had a problem with manpower,” said Presley, who has been chief for 25 years. “I believe men want to join a department they can be proud of and that they can trust and depend on those they’ll be working with.”

Presley said he has worked hard to provide that environment by always looking ahead and trying to plan for future resources.

“We put aside money several years ago for a fourth station we’ll need in the (Interstate) 90 area. We have a training facility that other departments in the area use. If you look into the future, you’ll be able to handle these things as they come up and people will see that and want to come to work for your department.”

Harlem-Roscoe has a volunteer firefighting class starting in January that already has 15 applicants. Last time, 27 people took the course and 15 graduated. Graduates typically take 115 hours of training, then take additional training over the next few months before they take their Firefighter II testing.

Presley has about 78 people on staff who are firefighters. Some are cross-trained in medical and other skills; others are dispatchers, investigators, chaplains and secretaries and fill other roles.

“Most of them stay with us” after training, he said. “You always lose one or two the first year who thought it was too demanding or we were asking too much of them.”

Family can help

Not all departments have had the kind of success Harlem-Roscoe has had. State and national officials say a community’s demographics play a role in how easily it fills its volunteer rosters.

Capt. Rod Waltrip of the Stillman Fire Protection District said his department is in the middle of a recruiting drive. Firefighters are distributing fliers, and the district has placed ads in newspapers to draw new blood. He believes it’s often best if the whole family is on board with a person’s decision to be a volunteer firefighter.

Waltrip’s wife, Rebecca, is a member of the department’s Women’s Auxiliary. Among other things, she helps provide drinks and food at fire scenes.

“You’re not just putting out fires anymore,” he said. “There is so much more to firefighting today.”

Weekly training sessions -- some lasting three to four hours -- classroom instruction, being on-call and responding to emergencies are some of the demands of the job.

A way of life

Most volunteer firefighters work other jobs because the money they make per call is usually not enough to support a family. Some chiefs said their rate is at or above minimum wage; others said volunteers with medical training and other knowledge and skills can make up to $15 an hour.

For Lynch, the Rockton volunteer firefighter and EMT who also is an emergency-room nurse, long hours of holding down two jobs may serve as a steppingstone to of working as a flight nurse. She believes the more she knows about all aspects of firefighting, lifesaving and nursing, the better her chances of her lifelong dream coming true.

Lynch was among eight people taking classes Sept. 10 at Rockton’s Fire Department. Every Monday night, they spend several hours training and learning. On this night, Lt. Rob Ebany was giving a course in rescue diving techniques. He demonstrated complex rope rescue pointers that everyone must know to help save lives. One day, the volunteers will be tested on what they have learned.

Ebany broke out in a sweat as he and a helper removed about 150 pounds of gear and weights he would need to conduct his underwater mission.

“I need all the experience I can get because I really want to be a flight nurse,” Lynch said. “My husband is a firefighter, too, so he kind of understands. It is a challenge, but you have to do a lot of training to be prepared for all the different scenarios we could face.”

Being a volunteer firefighter isn’t for everyone, Waltrip said, but anyone interested should check it out.

“I encourage anybody that wants to be on a fire department to go ahead and do it,” the Stillman Valley captain said. “It takes a special breed, but once you do it, it gets in your blood.”

Staff writer Rob Baxter can be reached at 815-987-1369 or rbaxter@rrstar.com.